US Open 2017: Johanna Konta has a 'great game' but will not be a contender at Flushing Meadows, says Chris Evert

Evert, six times a champion in New York, says she is disappointed at Konta's hard court form

Johanna Konta was beaten in the quarter-finals in Cincinnati by Simona Halep (Getty Images)

Chris Evert thinks that Johanna Konta has “a great game” but doubts whether the 26-year-old Briton will be a contender to win the US Open, which starts here on Monday.

Konta has a good record at Flushing Meadows, having reached the fourth round for the last two years, but Evert questions whether the world No 7 is in good enough form to make a claim for the title. Since reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon last month Konta lost first time out to Ekaterina Makarova in Toronto and was then beaten in the quarter-finals in Cincinnati by Simona Halep, whom she had beaten at the same stage at the All England Club.

Evert, six times a champion in New York, said she regarded Konta as one of “the eight or 10 players” who could challenge for the title but added: “I've been a little disappointed with her hard-court season. She really played so great at Wimbledon. She really played beautiful tennis, and I thought maybe she would carry that over to the hard-court season, but we haven't seen any great results.

“I don't know if Wimbledon might have just taken so much out of her and I know she was injured after Wimbledon, so she took a break. I'm not quite sure I would pick her. I would say that her chances aren't that great, but of course you never know with her. She's got a great game.”

The US Open was Konta’s breakthrough tournament two years ago. Ranked No 97 in the world, she won three matches in qualifying and then beat Garbine Muguruza and Andrea Petkovic to reach the second week of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time before losing to Petra Kvitova. She made the fourth round again last year before losing to Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova.

Although Konta proved her grass-court credentials when she became the first British woman since 1978 to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon, she has had most of her best results on hard courts. She reached the semi-finals at last year’s Australian Open and all three of her titles have been won on hard courts, at Beijing 11 months ago and at Sydney and Miami this year.

John McEnroe, who will be joining Evert on the ESPN commentary team, agreed with his colleague’s verdict on Konta. “I think Konta is a good competitor and she's done a lot of positive things,” he said. “She's made some really good strides. To me she’s a little mechanical at times. I respect what she's done and she seems to have worked on parts of her game which were weak, like mentally. She's worked with the right people to get herself in a better frame of mind more often.

“She had a great week in Miami, winning that title on a hard court. Her game to me is best suited to hard courts, but I also believe that the emotional and physical toll at Wimbledon - actually more emotional than physical - caught up with her.”

Evert, nevertheless, believes the women’s tournament here will be wide open. “I don't know how you can pick anybody,” she said. “On paper, it's Muguruza in her current form, but how is she going to deal with the pressure? In the past, she's been a little fragile mentally, but at the same time, on paper, you'd have to pick her.

“But then there are Madison Keys and Karolina Pliskova and some other power players who can match Muguruza's power and maybe have less pressure, and may be a little fresher than her. Again, it's so hard to predict. There are just so many factors, especially at the last Grand Slam tournament of the year."

Angelique Kerber is the defending champion but has not won a tournament in the intervening 12 months and has dropped from No 1 to No 6 in the rankings, with a further fall almost certain if she fails to win again.

Evert thinks the 29-year-old German can turn her form around but added: “I don’t know if it's going to be at the US Open. It's all mental with her. She's got the game. But she was playing with a lot more freedom and a lot more zip and a lot more confidence last year. She does have the game if she can just not feel so tight in these matches and play with the freedom that we saw.”

Muguruza, the Wimbledon champion, has maintained her form through the summer. In her three hard-court tournaments since winning her second Grand Slam title the 23-year-old Spaniard reached the semi-finals at Stanford and the quarter-finals at Toronto before winning the title in Cincinnati, where she beat Halep for the loss of only one game in the final. Halep would have toppled Pliskova from the top of the world rankings if she had won that match.

Pliskova, who was runner-up here last year, has made a reasonable start to the hard-court season, while Elina Svitolina won her fifth title of the year when she triumphed in Toronto, beating four fellow top 10 players along the way in Venus Williams, Muguruza, Halep and Caroline Wozniacki. Catherine Bellis, aged 18, has beaten Kvitova and Svetlana Kuznetsova in recent weeks, while Keys has also had a good summer, having won the title at Stanford. Wozniacki, meanwhile, was runner-up to Svitolina in Toronto and usually plays well in New York.

The one other player Evert thought should be brought into consideration is Sloane Stephens, who has made a promising return to competition after almost a year out with a foot injury. “She has a different look in her eyes when she's out on the court now,” Evert said. “She's fighting hard and she's very focused. I think she's got enormous potential. We always saw the game and we always saw the talent, but I think that taking off a year has given her a little more meaning in her tennis and maybe made her a little more passionate about her game.”